Records of the Past, Volume III

What It's About

This volume brings together English translations of primary source texts from ancient Egypt and the Near East, spanning roughly two millennia of civilisation. The contents are notably varied: they range from the wisdom maxims of the Egyptian sage Ptah-Hotep, one of the oldest moral treatises in the world, to an Egyptian tale of demonic possession, a hymn to the Nile, and a collection of diplomatic letters exchanged between Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Syria during the fifteenth century BC. On the Mesopotamian side, the volume includes agricultural precepts from ancient Babylon, the India House Inscription of Nebuchadrezzar the Great recording his building works, and a set of contract-tablets connected with Belshazzar, the Babylonian prince known from the Book of Daniel.

Key Concepts

The volume illustrates the breadth of ancient literacy — that writing served not only kings and priests but merchants, farmers, and diplomats. The diplomatic letters are particularly significant as evidence of the interconnected political world of the Late Bronze Age. The wisdom literature of Ptah-Hotep raises enduring questions about the antiquity of ethical thought, while the contract-tablets and inscriptions show ancient legal and administrative systems in concrete detail. Sayce's translations reflect the Assyriological scholarship of the late nineteenth century, and readers should be aware that some readings and interpretations have since been revised.

About the Author

Archibald Henry Sayce (1845–1933) was a British philologist and Assyriologist, and for many years Professor of Assyriology at Oxford. He was a leading figure in the decipherment and popularisation of ancient Near Eastern languages, and was among the first scholars to recognise the importance of the Hittite civilisation.